Memorial Day Monday Range Trip

This morning I got up early and joined Tosh and Jason at the range.

A fun time was had by all. We shot the Tavor, Galil, FAL, and their AR15s.

The Tavor is nicely dialed in for a 100 yard zero, so that the 4 line in the scope is dead on at 25 yards

Tosh had brought some rifle-rated steel to the range so shooting the rifles and ringing the steel was fun.

They really liked shooting the FAL.

We also did a lot of pistol practice - battle dots, dot torture, and 5x5 drills.

Running a timer on the 5x5 drill adds to the pressure, along with not wanting to mess up in front of your friends.  Add a friend videotaping your performance and it gets even more of a "please don't let me goof this up" pressure.

The 5x5 drill is 5 shots in the circle , at 5 yards,  in under 5 seconds par time from concealment.

I shot it clean and within the time at 4.71, which was nice.  Now to work on getting that time down.

That's 350 more rounds through the Masada with zero failures, and some 50 through my Glock shooting  and 100 rounds through the P99, shooting with zero failures as well.

It was a great morning out with some great people.

Now I'm home for a cleaning and prep of the house.  We have a few friends coming over for Memorial Day now that Gov Haf-Whit has graciously and arbitrarily allowed gatherings of up to 10 people.  So time to make the place spic and span.

I had the smoker going all yesterday, smoking some goodness, and it was in the oven all night stalled out and now getting to its final temp before pulling and serving.  Should be tasty and smells great already.

I hope you all have a great Memorial Day, no matter how locked down you may be out there.

Saturday Snowy Range Trip Day

Yes, it is May 9, and it snowed here today. Not enough to stick, but enough to make you wonder about claims of global warming.

So, on with the winter jacket taken out of storage and off to meet two friends from jiu jitsu at the range for outdoor recreation activities.

I'll say this much, the whole shut down is getting me more range time than I've had otherwise by far. Also, speed limit on the highway is still 90 mph or so, but gas has gone up in price recently as more people are saying screw it and heading out and about. Aside from the impending doom of income drying up, it's all good, right?

Anyways I met both Tosh and Jason at the range and both are seriously good shooters and definitely gun culture 2.0.

Much fun was had, and it was darn good to see them again after all this time off the mats. Great guys.

I shot the Masada and they both tried it as well and liked it.

That's another 300 rounds through it with zero failures.

We did the casino drill which was fun. We also did a dot torture run and I got a 49/50 on it, my closest to perfect so far with the Masada.

We also did a battle dot shoot off, which was a lot of fun.

Battle dots is a fun little drill where two people each pick either the black dots or white dots and then each firing one shot in turn, the race is to see who finishes of all their dots first. I shot it clean each time which I was very happy about.

Tosh was rocking his customized Glock 17 that was cut stippled and down to take Glock 19 mags, had the gadget, and a flat trigger, and had an RMR mounted on it. It ran flawlessly and was very fun to shoot.

Jason had his Glock 17 and a new Glock 44 in 22 which was also fun to shoot.
We also shot my Walther P99 and shooting it was a case of put dot of the Walther's front sight on a dot, and hit the dot.

We also shot some rifles first on the pistol range at 25 yards against paper targets only.

Yep, the muzzle break on Tosh's rifle offered much flash for pictures. Amazingly, the hair on his knuckles remains unsinged.

Shooting it was an experience.

That rifle was a lot of fun to shoot.

The muzzle break on Jason's rifle, while not giving picture worthy flashes, gave muzzle blast that was physically perceptible both to the sides and behind him that was actually uncomfortable to experience.

 Good for the shooter, hellacious if close by otherwise. When shooting it however, the muzzle blast was directed completely away from the shooter making it very comfortable to shoot.

I brought along my 300 Blackout AR Pistol and we all shot it, which offered a nice respite from the noise.

I also brought a rifle that I hadn't shot before and one that I had waited a long time to get, which will be the subject of the next post.

More Shooty Stuff At The Range Today.

Leah shot "her" S&W .22 compact with silencer as its her preferred firearm. She also shot the Beretta 81 as it is both fashionable and more powerful as it knocks down steel plates, unlike the .22.

I also let her shoot my new-to-me James Bond gun. She's been watching the Bond movies recently given the downtime, and got to where Bond in Tomorrow Never Dies, (in the guise of Pierce Brosnan, Tash's favorite Bond) upgraded to the Walther P99.

These are Spanish Civil Guard P99 turn-ins from Classic Firearms and their condition, while stated as Very Good to Excellent, vary a bit farther than that.

The first one I ordered, in the proclaimed Very Good to Excellent condition came with every steel part rusted - every pin, the extractor, the bolt face, you name it. Considering it came in a clear plastic bag, it's not like they could have missed all that rust when they packed it for shipping.

That was rather unsatisfactory.

On the upside, Classic Firearms was good about returning it, especially once they viewed the pictures of the rust, and I got this one in exchange.

This one, while clearly never cleaned by the officer who carried it on duty, as it was all gunked up and dirty, cleaned up rather nicely and this was its first time out to range after picking it up on Friday. It certainly has a most politically incorrect serial number.

Aside from the unfortunate serial number, that serial group has the later upgrades - mainly the longer paddles for easier mag changes, which is a nice plus. The Rusted one was an FAC serial numbered gun with the short paddles and you can really tell the difference between them on sight, with the longer paddles being a lot more usable without having to switch your grip.

I and Leah together ran 100 rounds through it - 50 Federal 124 NATO, and 50 Winchester 147 HPs, with zero failures. It feels great in the hand, trigger is great, and its a darn nice firearm to carry and shoot both. Glock 19 sized with a 15 round magazine, and its neat Anti-Stress trigger, it'll make a nice carry firearm.

Leah liked shooting it as well.

After shooting the P99, I then set her up with the S&W M&P 15-22 and she had a great time with it. The .22 from a rifle, unlike from a compact pistol, will knock down the steel plates and she had a ball running it. Lots of smiles doing 25 rounds of rapid fire and hitting her targets with each of those rapid shots.

I also brought out the Golani.

Turns out I got a good one. 100 rounds through and it ran like a top, decent groupings, and excellent functioning with no problems at all.

I'm rather pleased with it.

A darn good time at the range. After a couple hours she was getting a bit cold so we packed it in and headed home.